Noncontact IC tag labels are a medium that is also termed a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag or a noncontact data carrier. This type of medium has an IC chip retaining the information allowing the identification of one specific product, commodity, article, or the like, and is constructed to allow noncontact reading of the information by means of radio communications. These noncontact IC tag labels are used in such fields as transport, physical distribution, warehousing, factory process control, and airline baggage handling.
The advantages and applicability of the noncontact IC tags are becoming confirmed, but a cause of the hindrance to more widespread use of these noncontact IC tags is the problem that the tags themselves are expensive. For use in larger quantities, therefore, it is important for these tags to be further reduced in cost. Cost reduction of the integrated circuits and base materials required, however, is currently at its limits and thus, remarkable lower pricing of the tags is not anticipated for the nonce. For example, the IC tags used for products are each manufactured by forming a resist pattern on the metallic layer, such as aluminum or copper, that has an antenna or any other electroconductive member for a noncontact IC tag label, stacked primarily upon a base material, and then etching the metallic layer. These IC tags, however, are required to be constructed into a simpler structure and at the same time, manufactured in a simpler manner.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication JP-2005-346696A (Patent Document 1) proposes a method of forming an antenna directly by use of a punching edge. However, as the invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 is entitled “Electrically Conductive Member for Noncontact Data Carrier, and Method for Manufacturing the Member”, Patent Document 1 does not relate to manufacturing the noncontact IC tag label itself. In addition, although the noncontact data carrier itself is described in claims 3 and 4, a surface protection sheet with a pressure-sensitive adhesive layer is not described and the construction of the noncontact data carrier differs from that of the noncontact IC tag described in the present application.
Documents such as JP-H07-56513A (Patent Document 2) and JP-2002-351336A (Patent Document 3) introduce hand baggage tags. Although JP-H07-56513A describes a hand baggage tag whose base material has thermal adhesiveness, the hand baggage tag does not have an information-recording IC chip, so the corresponding invention has no relationship to the subject matter of the present application. Although JP-2002-351336A also describes an airline baggage tag, since a data storage element is affixed to the base material of the tag, the structure or configuration of the tag differs from those of the noncontact IC tag label or such of the present application. In addition, manufacturing costs cannot be reduced since the conventional tag employs etching as its manufacturing method.